Dear Dog Owners:

(by Kristin)

Some of you are great. Some of you, I am mad at and you are seriously buggin'. To mend our relationship, I have found the perfect product for you:

Yes!  A leash.  Not only a retractable leash, but one with a bag dispenser.  Now, I haven't had to look hard to notice that many of you have neither.  Yes, on my last run, 3 dogs ran right up to me.  (I can see that the owners are thinking, "Who doesn't love having a cute sweet dog like mine run up and sniff them??"  The answer is: many people.  I suggest waiting for the other person to invite the leashed dog over if they really want to pet them or to be sniffed.)  On my run with Suzy a vicious mutt came running and snarling at us from a neighboring home.  Yikes!  I had to pull out my old missionary trick and bend down like I was grabbing a rock.  Works like a charm most of the time. 

Don't get me wrong, people- I am a true dog lover too!  Just ask me about Missy, Cookie, Daisy and Sasha.  I love to pet and play with dogs just like you do, but I'll be darned if I want them tripping me while I'm running, barreling toward me for sniffing/jumping/growling purposes, or pooping in my path.  People!  Pick up the poop!  This means you will have to bring bags.  Yes, it's a little gross to pick up your dogs warm poo, but it's the law, and it's making the trails disgusting.

Well, I think I've made my point.  (In case you missed it- leashes and poop bags.)

Moving on, aren't the new Blogger editing changes nice, my fellow bloggers?  (If you don't have them yet, you have to change yours under Settings.)  Although I can't figure out how to use spell check or upload a video without going back to the old ways.  I've also added some random new widgets to the blog, but it's a work in progress, so bear with me.  

Yes, I had to confess to Matt this morning that I dreamed I was one of the contestants on the Bachelor.  But!  The guy's name was Matt.  It was me vs. Vienna and Ali, and I was way behind.  I had just joined the show and was plotting my plan, and texting "Matt" flirty things.  What a nerd!  I am so into the show though!  I am rooting for anyone but Vienna- she has a bad vibe, man.  And Jake's blinded by his sexual attraction to her, no mas.  See Erica's post on her HERE.  (My sister's friend.)

Lastly, I want some advice- what is up with my chronically tight calves?  Advice??

XOXO

~K

APX alarm protects more than just your home

So many exciting things have happened lately. Where to begin...

First, I want to tell about our run a couple of weeks ago- the biggest run yet- 16 miles!! Can you believe it? I'm amazed at myself! And the strangest thing is, it wasn't even hard- it felt good. Weird!!

The weather that morning. Rain!

Danna, Suzy, and I arrived at our new trail after much driving around in circles in the rain. We finally found the spot where we could park on the Legacy Parkway trail in Davis County- my favorite location yet! Oh yeah, it was pouring! It was pre-crack of dawn. It was freezing. Who'dve thought to check the weather in the middle of August? We've never really run in heavy rain before. If the girls had said, "Let's bag it," I was game. We wimpily sat in the car for a WHILE, reapplying bodyglide, staring at the trail, leaning on the head rests.

My hood was scant protection against the downpour. I rage against nature.

When we finally stepped out, we were immediately frozen and drenched. None of us wanted to get our only hoodies soaked and render them useless before we even started, so we took them off and huddled together under a covering.

Then I had a genius idea! Matt used to sell security systems for a company called APX and all his old work shirts were in the trunk waiting to go to the D.I. We each put on a sweet blue APX shirt (I put on 2) and it totally did the trick! It was so funny though because the shirts were so manly and big, and all matchy-matchy too! People must've thought it was our team outfit! Ha ha! Plus we ran with our arms inside the shirts for at least a couple miles. And our water belts were inside too! We probably looked like a bunch of crazies. Out in the rain, armless, lumpy, matching. Go team APX!! Well of course these shirts are now a permanent car trunk item. You just never know when they'll come in handy again! Plus they have major sentimental value now.




As we warmed up, the weather actually felt really good, and the new scenery was great, the conversation was stellar, and the run was awesome!!

Then last Saturday, Danna and I ran in SLC- from Memory Grove up City Creek Canyon to the top and back. It was our designated "hill training week." Danna knew I was dreading hill training big time and am very freaked about the elevation changes on the actual St. George Marathon course. I have been whining and scared about it for weeks. I read all the St. George forums about it too, and freak myself out even more. We ran uphill for about 7 miles- torture for me! Then down for 5-6. Danna had to pull out all the big guns for me to be able to continue. She even provided me with motivational and distracting gifts throughout so that I would make it to the top. Like Jelly Belly energy beans, mango creme savers (PS: Adam, I know the Jelly Bellys were from you. You're the best!) which are surprisingly helpful. I even brought her a gift of my own! I put my hand on my bum at one point (no idea why now that you ask) and felt something strange. I said, "There's something on my bum!!" and after a short struggle, I pulled out:
A dish scrubbie pad! Yes, it had adhered its sneaky little self to my shorts' inner lining while in the dryer. Plus I wear the little Under Armor shorts under those. Wow. If anyone on that mountain had needed a pot scrubbed, I was their girl!

Danna also found a cute little cave. I was unable to join her in spelunking as: a.) it would have required that I climbed down and up a bunch of stairs, and my legs were already uber-stiff (and it was only about mile 7) so I'm pretty sure I never would have made it back up the stairs and b.) I was charitably trying to help her learn to use the timer button on her camera. :) Danna was way too spunky during hill training. She ran down and up those stairs twice! And at the end of our torturous run, she asked if we could run up the hill to the Avenues, and then down the steps to the car again. Um, no Danna. That's enough!! I told her she was more than welcome to do so, as long as she didn't mind walking home alone.

Here we are icing and stuff:

No, but seriously, the hill training wasn't as bad as I had feared. I really think Danna picked out a sick run this time and we got to see so many cool and beautiful (and blissfully distracting) things. Like Memory Grove when it's still dark! We also saw homeless people getting up in the morning, and druggies dealing, and dogs running around, and fellow St. George Marathon-ers. We ran for several miles near these 2 other guys training for St. George, and they were so funny. Might I add that they were veteran marathoners, and we passed them!! I hope they didn't see our high fives. They told us about other marathons they'd run, including one they ran next to none other than JEFF himself!! And we (D and I) talked together about every topic under the sun- from the gospel, to the differences between men and women, to life working in the hospital, to bristle pads of all things!!

Girl's camp

A couple weeks ago I was at girls' camp which was super fun- I love all the girls so much!! They are fabulous. Here's the only shot I took. What a lame camerawoman, right? Luckily, one of the YW -Bailey- helped me out and took 16 interesting shots of her own face. I have shared some real gems below from that sample.

Last week Matt and I spent the week with my fam and a few friends in Lake Powell. I did a lot of water running as X-training. Mikelle and I even got up at 6 one morning and went running on some hiking trails. It was fun. We got to drive the wave runner up a cool swampy river, saw baby frogs, ancient pictographs, we nearly sprained our ankles, and we rocked out with out ipods!On our way to the run!

Inside the boat

My dad has been feeling worried that the world may think I only ever wear a sweaty bun in my hair, to match my sweaty outfit and make-up-less face. (My parents have always been vehemently anti-bun.) Well, just for you, Daddio, I have included a few photos below, proving that I am not just Sweaty Bun Girl. And I do have an outfit other than that dang black and white one I think we are all a little sick of seeing on the blog by now.

The dynamic duo does double digits

Another week goes by...
Sunday we completed the 100th mile of our training schedule. Woo hoo!

This weekend our run was really great. I actually struggled the first 4 miles, but felt pretty good after that. We ran a total of 12 miles!! We will never again be running single digit runs on Saturdays. My little sis Mikelle came to run with us for the first 4 miles (she is now training for her own half-marathon: The Top of Utah), and Suzy ran the final 2 with us. These created excellent distractions from the drudgery. As did our fun girl talk. I talked about every little detail of Youth Conference (which I went to this weekend) for about 8 miles, letting Danna breathe easy. :)

Twelve miles!

On the run, there were a few highlights I would like to mention. Underwear Man. I have been telling Danna about him for a while now, but no description could do this strange dude justice. On this run he appeared! He rides his bike in a strange pair of underwear each morning, clearly seeking attention. Sometimes it's a one-piece tight white cotton wrestling-type suit, (what Matt's mom used to call a onesie!) but yesterday he had a new flesh-colored pair of underwear on (only)...no joke! I felt so validated to have Danna actually see this guy (Mikelle saw him too!), and when he whizzed by she looked horrifiedly at me, and I yelled "That's HIM!" We then discussed his strange daily behavior. Any of you other Parkway walkers/runners seen this guy??

We also saw the Jeff Galloway marathon training team out and about, and we cheered many of them on, and felt not a little jealous of their coolness, and their jugs of water and Gatorade every few miles. We might have joined if it weren't $159.00. Check it out: http://www.utah262.com/ Sheesh! What do they do to earn that money? Make you run? More on the training team later...

After the run always comes my favorite part. The icing, stretching, and eating. We iced and stretched for about 40 minutes I think. Seriously, my whole body was covered in salt crystals like never before in my life. I was a walking salt lick. As we stretched and chatted with Adam, we decided we are going to be starting our own training program next year. It will be called "She Runs Like a Girl Marathon Training." We will be driving along the Parkway in a shaded golf cart, with tropical umbrella drinks and a megaphone, and shouting things like:

"Move it ladies!!"
"More walk, less talk!"
"My next tip is go faster!!"
And many other hillarious things I can't remember!
Adam suggested we put spikes on the front of the golf cart.
And then we would see the Galloway runners going by and we'd obnoxiously trash talk them. When our trainees asked technical running questions we don't know the answers to, we'd shuffle through Jeff or Hal's books (which would of course be disguised with a pink cover.) Or we'd just answer them all with "That can be solved by stretching your I.T. band."

After I went home and showered, we met up again for a little more fun. Namely my favorite 2 things! The "lox and a bagel" from Einstein's, fresh squeezed OJ, (Danna had a blueberry streussel and fresh fruit medley).

Then a make-over and shopping trip at the Nordstrom Anniversary sale. I got some cute Estee Lauder make-up, a sweet gift with purchase, and check out my cute new shoes!! (Also check out this sexy male model!)

If you're thinking 'bout bein' my running partner it don't matter if you're hot or cold...

Ha ha, little ode to MJ there. But what I mean to say by that title is that Danna and I are very different in some ways, but even so we make great running partners. I am always cold, she is always hot. This makes choosing the time of day for our Saturday runs a tricky process. I could seriously live all summer without A/C and never complain. Danna could do winter without a heater, easy. I hate carrying my jacket, but freeze for the first mile or 2 if I don't bring it. Danna has been running in shorts and no jacket since March. BUT, we both like to sleep in! Danna likes to run at night, I prefer to get it done in the morning. She says "Lava (rhymes with java) Hot Springs," I say "Lava (like the "la" in "lamp") Hot Springs" which is, by the way Danna, how the locals say it as we have discussed.

We have created a code with which we can discuss any spot along the parkway. If she called me mid-run and I said "I'm at garbage can," she would know exactly where I was. It's kinda fun. Thanks to her GPS watch we have also clocked out every 1/2 mile along the parkway. Some of the locations we speak of frequently are pretty funny-sounding. Here are some of my favorite examples:

House 6334
The horseshoe tar (there is a bit of tar painted into a horseshoe shape)
The arrows (arrows painted on the road)
The quad (Go Aggies!)
The last Russian Olive
Stinky truck stop
The spot with the prettiest view
Duck pond
(and Danna, I bet you would know what I was referring to if I said: Graffiti underpass, mosquito bog, huge slug spot, starting line, tree...)

There is a man who runs on the parkway with his wife. He runs at a slow limping-type pace. He runs barefoot! We refer to him as "Barefoot Man." During one of my cool downs he passed me and I summoned my courage to ask "Sooo, why do you run barefoot?" He explained to me that a shoe is like a cast, and that it is better for the foots range of motion and general mobility to go shoeless. I mean, often times he runs on the rocky gravel and it seriously looks painful. Foot ROM? What about arch support?? Well, I didn't feel he was very happy with my asking, so even though Danna and Suzie were very excited and had more questions, I feel I have overstepped my bounds with Barefoot Man.

Matt modeled for me what we imagine happening to Barefoot man:

We have cool "Runner's Logs" that we write in every day. They are pretty fun and motivating. here's an example from one of my pages:



One thing Danna forgot to mention in her last post was that this Saturday an amazing event occurred- WE PASSED OTHER RUNNERS on the Parkway! This was a first for us, but we passed 2 other runners who were training for a half-marathon! That was definitely one for the log book. Very special.



I would like to celebrate by sharing an amazing picture I took. An aerial view of my shorts and shoes.


A bonus video of one random morning last week: